Farben - Textstar

Jen Jelinek, whatever his alias (here: Farben), manages to create some of the most involving electronic music around. TEXTSTAR, a collection of 12"s on Klang Elektronik, is much more dancey than his other works, but this is more headphone music than speaker music. "Live at the Sahara House, 1973" already starts out warm, but the woodwinds halfway through cinch the deal. Bit of jazz emerge on "Farben Says: Love to Love You Baby." "Suntouch Edit" is every bit as bright as its title implies with an intriguingly off-kilter rhythmic structure, while "Beautone" is as pretty as it title implies, with a seemingly game show-inspired flute chorus in the middle. "Farben Says: So Much Love" tosses in some quiet female vocals, while "Bayreuth" is more abstract, almost akin to Jelinek's other works. And the final track, "Farben Says: Love Oh Love" builds on a looped guitar plucking and ends on a tinkling piano. Brilliant all the way through.

Jan Jelinek produces some of the most distinctive sounding electronic music that's out there. In a genre often criticized for its sameness and unoriginality, Jelinek is a breath of fresh air, whether he's releasing material under his own name, as Gramm, Farben, or other monikers. (Granted that criticism is most often made by those who don't know, but those who do know it has some validity.)

Jelinek releases his most danceable tracks as Farben, and "Textstar" is a kind of 'hits' or singles collection, culled from his previously released 12"s on Klang.

While I enjoy Jelinek's other productions, his releases as Farben are simply phenomenal and true favorites of mine. They are extremely laid back yet mostly midtempo, and make for unbelievably good listening both at home and on the dancefloor.

I think the primary appeal of Farben tracks are their structure, which is fairly similar to the standard pop template - with enough quirky twists to assure you that this is not pop - this is actually very interesting music. Most of the basslines are 'Challenger Deep' and groovy as it gets. Percussion and high hat consists mainly of clicks, scrapes, and other signatures of micro- or clickhouse. Jelinek also integrates relatively short melodies into most tracks, such as sampled brass instruments or keyboard work.

Best of all, it's all dubbed out. I can't even imagine how much time Jelinek spends tweaking, filtering & processing these tracks until the production is entirely seamless.

A guaranteed head nodder from start to finish. I highly recommend picking up the Starbox 4x12" in addition to this. There's no such thing as too much Farben!

Very minimal, very sexy.
But be shure before use money on it... I had expected alittle more storytelling, and not the much "empth" musical spaces. I was aiming for the Gramm record initially. Alittle flat and enerving disharmonic fade-in sounds and advanced anti-grooves. It is both a job and a revelation listening to. I have mixed feelings for this one, although the end-product quality is unquestionably high.